Albert Hammond Jr.

Nightbox

Albert Hammond Jr.

AHJ, the latest from The Strokes’ guitarist Albert Hammond, Jr., will be released October 8 via Julian Casablancas’ Cult Records. The EP follows Hammond’s previous solo efforts, 2006’s Yours to Keep, which NME called “an intimate, frequently beautiful and consistently surprising record that gets better with every listen,” and 2008’s ¿Cómo Te Llama?. Of the new EP’s relationship with his earlier releases, Hammond said, “It’s a combination of both previous recordings, which in turn makes it feel like it’s the best material that I’ve made so far.”

AHJ was produced, engineered and mixed by Grammy-winning producer Gus Oberg and recorded at Hammond’s two studios, Broome Street in Manhattan and One Way Studios in upstate New York. Of working with Oberg, Hammond says “I’ve been working with him since my first solo project, after we met and became best friends. We get along and we understand each other musically, so everything just flows.” Hammond played all of the instruments on the EP himself, excluding drums on several tracks, which were played by longtime collaborator Matthew Frank Romano.

Since the release of ¿Cómo Te Llama?, Hammond has released two critically acclaimed albums with The Strokes, 2011’s Angles and this year’s Comedown Machine. Of his inspirations for AHJ, Hammond said “Once you play music for a living, you’re always thinking about stuff. Conversations with friends and things you hear in movies – things come up and become lyrics. Hearing other people’s songs becomes like competition – you hear something and mentally you want to beat it. Life in general is pretty inspiring”

Nightbox

There are bands, and then there are brotherhoods. The former does not the latter make, but the five members of Nightbox grew up in the same town, went to the same school, and fell in love with the same sounds.

Their bond is uncommonly deep and so is their musicality. Attend a Nightbox show and you’ll be struck by just how many ideas are expressed in tandem, all constructed to fit together like some bizarre Techno-color pop puzzle. Your body and brain will gyrate at the same time, and you’ll experience a sort of synesthesia where you can’t tell which instrument is keeping time and which is sounding a melody; bass lines, guitar lines and tom fills all ducking and weaving around each other in a helix of awesome. You will no doubt, begin to get a sense of the glorious noise these five young Irish lads are creating.

After releasing their debut EP in 2011, critical and commercial reaction was noteworthy on a world scale. The music video for single “Pyramid” earned heavy rotation on Canadian music television stations, and the track was selected to appear on the prestigious French label Kitsune’s Maison Compilation 11. It was chosen by the NME as a Top-10 download, stating it takes on “a fresh sound of its own,” while UK’s Dazed & Confused magazine raved it “takes a hedonistic approach with high energy results on a new breed of dance.” The EP’s release in Japan on Rallye Label, sold out on its initial offering.
Nightbox proceeded to tear up festival tent stages on both sides of the Atlantic, most notably during their barnstorming sets for packed houses at Reading & Leeds and Ireland’s Electric Picnic Festival, where BBC exclaimed “The glitchy synths and the guitars sounded delightful…and by jove do they know how to write a hook,” ranking Nightbox’s performance Top-10 of the entire festival.

Nighbox have just wrapped the debut album with MSTRKRFT production wiz Al-P. Recent direct support slots for Ellie Goulding, Cults, Death from Above 1979, and Canadian & UK tours with Juno Award winner Lights, and are soon to announce several dates in North America and Europe. Dance floors will be soaked. Bring a mop.